The present invention relates to an arrangement for guiding a swing-out sliding door on a vehicle body, particularly of a motor vehicle. That is, the present invention is directed to an arrangement which, in its closing position covering a door opening, rests largely flush in the vehicle body and, in its open position completely exposing the door opening, is disposed at a parallel distance in front of the vehicle body, having a supporting member which is connected with the sliding door in an articulated member, having a roller carriage which holds the supporting member and which has rollers travelling in a guide rail fixed on the vehicle body side, and having a closing roller which is guided in the guide rail and which, at the end of the door closing sliding movement, travels into a closing groove branching off the guide rail.
In DE-AS 1 480 612, the guide rail is arranged on the outside on the vehicle body wall approximately in the center with respect to the sliding door and extends to the door opening. The supporting member is constructed as a supporting arm which is rigidly connected with the roller carriage and which, at the end of the sliding door which is in the rear in the door closing sliding direction, is fixed on the sliding door with a vertically aligned hinge axis. Another guide rail is fastened inside the door opening on the upper vehicle body edge, and another roller travels on the additional guide rail and is held on the sliding door with a horizontally aligned axis.
The known additional guide rail extends in a curved manner into the inside on the end of the door opening facing away from the center guide rail so that, at the end of the door closing sliding movement, also the end of the sliding door facing away from the supporting arm is forcibly guided in the direction of the vehicle body and thus, in the door closing position, the sliding door rests on both ends flush in the vehicle body.
One of the rollers of the roller carriage with a horizontally aligned roller axis is used for the support in the downward direction and one roller with a vertically aligned roller axis is used for guiding the door transversely to the sliding direction. The closing roller is spaced from the roller with the vertically arranged roller axis on the roller carriage and also has a vertically aligned roller axis. The closing roller is located on the end of the roller carriage which is in the front in the door closing sliding direction. At the end of the door closing sliding movement, this closing roller travels into the closing groove which continues in a seamless manner at the forward end of the center guide rail and is curved into the interior of the vehicle body.
In a known sliding door for aircraft shown in DE-AS 1 218 290, the guiding device comprises two upper and low lower guide rails which are fastened parallel to one another in the side wall of the aircraft body. The rails are provided on end side, on one hand, with a closing cam which extends in a curved manner into the vehicle body interior and, on the other hand, with a stop. The supporting members which are supported by one roller respectively having a vertical roller axis on the two upper and lower guide rails in each case have three mutually rigidly connected arms. One arm is connected by way of a torsion spring bar with the sliding door; the two other arms each carry one of the two guide rollers respectively on their free end.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an arrangement for guiding a swing-out sliding door on a vehicle body, particularly for motor vehicles, in which a visible guide rail situated on the outside on the vehicle body side wall is avoided.
The foregoing object has been achieved in accordance with the present invention by providing that each guide rail with the closing groove is arranged within the door opening at its upper and lower edge, in that a roller carriage travels in each guide rail, in that the supporting members between the sliding door and the roller carriage are constructed as control arm parallelograms whose respective two control arms having vertically extending hinge axes are linked close to the upper and lower end of the sliding door and to the roller carriage, in that the closing rollers are fixed on one control arm of the control arm parallelograms respectively, in that the guide rails are constructed in a straight line, and in that the closing grooves are each constructed as a circular groove branching off from the guide rail toward the sliding door, the curvature center of the groove in the door closing end position of the roller carriage coinciding with the roller-carriage-side hinge axis of the control arm carrying the closing roller.
The arrangement according to the present invention has the advantage that, because of the absence of the exterior guide rail, a smooth-surface shell of the vehicle body can be maintained so that fewer wind noises will occur and the vehicle body design is not subjected to requirements determined by the sliding door. Simultaneously, the bothersome dirtying of the open guide rail and a certain sluggishness of the sliding movement with an accompanying extreme generating of noise is eliminated because the rollers in the exterior guide rail must not be lubricated in order to avoid the danger of a soiling of the driver. Also, the danger of corrosion of the exterior guide rail, which had always existed, is eliminated.
Because of the construction of the supporting members between the sliding door and the roller carriage as control arm parallelograms, the door opening in accordance with the present invention can be made significantly larger and the guide rails can be kept significantly shorter so that the space required for them is reduced. The guide rails, which are now situated inside the door opening in the interior, are less endangered by corrosion and can be conveniently serviced and optionally greased.